Court document: Online exhibitionist killed with bottle

By JAY REEVESFebruary 23, 2018

This photo provided by Shelby county jail shows William Jeffrey West. West, the husband of an online exhibitionist whose partially nude body was found outside her suburban home was arrested Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018, in her killing, an Alabama police chief said. West, 44, is being charged with murder in the death of his 42-year-old wife, Kathleen Dawn West, Calera Police Chief Sean Lemley said at a news conference.
"He was the suspect from the very beginning," Lemley said. (Shelby county jail via AP)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Police believe a man used a liquor bottle as a weapon to kill his exhibitionist wife, who was found dead from a head wound outside their suburban home, a court document showed Friday.

A police complaint alleged Kathleen Dawn West, 42, was killed with a bottle of Lucid Absinthe in January.

Her husband, 44-year-old William Jeffrey West, was charged with murder Thursday. The woman died of a head wound, police said during a news conference, but they wouldn’t reveal the alleged weapon.

Surveillance video obtained by Inside Edition from a liquor store near the couple’s home showed the two purchasing what appeared to be a bottle of Lucid Absinthe and another bottle hours before her partially nude body was found in the street in front of the house, located about 35 miles (56 kilometers) south of Birmingham in Calera.

Court documents don’t list a defense lawyer for West, an unsworn police officer who is being fired from his job at Birmingham-Southern College, and no hearing date was set. West is being held on $500,000 bond.

The woman — who bore a resemblance to Marilyn Monroe — posted risque photos publicly and even sexier images that subscribers could pay $15.99 a month to view.

The slaying resulted from a domestic argument, police said.

Jeff West’s father, William West, told Birmingham-area news media he believed an accidental fall caused his daughter-in-law’s death. The two loved each other, West said, and his son knew of the woman’s online activities.

“She wasn’t fooling around on anybody else. This was just a photo thing and there’s a lot of freaks out there that get into that stuff,” William West told WBMA-TV .